Patrolling for the county's wildlife

Posted: Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The sun died quickly on this November evening. With barely an edge of the moon glowing and a thin veil of clouds overhead blocking the stars, the dark swallowed the forest. Shane Sartor drove his pickup slowly down a tree-lined dirt road a few miles outside Colbert, when he spotted a station wagon and Ford Explorer on the roadside.

No one was about. And the tags showed these people were not from Madison County.

"I'm going to sit on this," he said as his pickup came to a stop. "If they are here with (the owner's) permission, they'll be straight."

Sartor, a conservation ranger for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, was on a routine patrol in Madison County where his job is to enforce the state's hunting and fishing laws.

Sartor sat quietly in his pickup. Minutes passed. Then in the distance of the forest, one could see the bright glow of a small LED light. Exiting the pickup, Sartor walked to the rear and waited. Two men, who were wearing camouflage clothing and carrying large-caliber rifles, soon walked out of the woods.

The men, upon seeing Sartor, recognized immediately they were in the company of a ranger. As they exchanged greetings, one hunter mentioned the property owner by name, giving Sartor a clue that they were on this land with permission.

"I've got to go through this," Sartor said. And without further explanation, both pulled out their wallets to hand over their hunting licenses.

This was a typical event for Sartor, who this year was named State Ranger of the Year for the DNR's Wildlife Resources Division. While he enforces the law, it was Sartor's emphasis on helping educate the community on wildlife laws and safety that caught the eye of his supervisors and peers in the field.

Besides hunter safety courses, he helped organize fishing events and developed a dove hunting event for youth that attracted about 100 people in September.

Since this workday would go far into the night, Sartor began his day in midafternoon, first stopping by the Madison County Sheriff's Office to do some paperwork. Then shortly afterward, he headed to a field where a motorist saw a hunter, who wasn't wearing an orange vest, sitting in deer stand. The vest is required by law for safety reasons. It's tips like this that help Sartor find people violating the law.

On this day, no one was in the stand.

So Sartor drove to a farm, where he found a hunting stand where someone was hunting over bait. It's illegal to shoot deer over bait, whether its corn, apples, a salt block or other lure. Sartor parked near the woodline and walked into the woods to check the stand. Again, no one was there. Because this November day had warmed into the 70s, Sartor felt this might have some affect on hunting behavior because most hunters want cooler weather.

From here, Sartor drove to another location between Colbert and Comer, where he received a report of someone possibly shooting at deer from a vehicle on the road. That also is illegal. To hide his pickup, he pulled into the bay of a storage building on a chicken farm and waited. A couple of pickups slowly passed on the nearby road, but there were no deer in the field and while the trucks were going slow, neither stopped.

"I'm working this one because the landowner called," he said as the sun dipped below the horizon and the sun's rays painted the western horizon clouds with an orange and pink tint. "As a general rule, a poacher or road hunter will hunt somewhere he doesn't have a fence to deal with and without houses where someone would likely see him."

Sartor hasn't found much this afternoon, but he said that for some reason this has been a slow season for hunting.

"This is the way our season has gone," he said. "The hunters are just not out there."

Following his license check on the two hunters near Colbert, Sartor drove to a more secluded area a few miles from the Broad River. It was in this general area that Sartor had received reports of people hearing gunshots at night. Hunting deer at night is against the law. Along a dirt road, he backed his pickup into the trees about 20 yards. Here he waited. And waited. There are no guarantees when a night hunter will be lurking the roads with a spotlight. So many nights Sartor finds nothing. But he knows that these illegal hunters also won't know when he is out, even though he gets tips that people drive by his home some nights, apparently to see if his state-issued pickup is in the yard.

The Broad River is the major body of water in the county and Sartor checks it frequently. For instance, this past summer on the Broad River, he made almost two dozen marijuana possession arrests. And there are the litter charges he files when he catches rafters or boaters throwing out trash along the river.

"That's the biggest complaint I get from landowners along the river," Sartor said. "I've gotten good feedback from landowners. A few have not been cooperative and haven't been excited about my presence, but the majority are happy I'm down there."

Sartor, who grew up in Grayson in Gwinnett County, is the son of a former agriculture teacher and high school principal, who is a native of Mississippi. His parents, Roger and Sandra Sartor, now live in White County. "I've hunted and fished all my life. I love the outdoors," he said.

Sartor lived in Escatawpa, Miss., for five years and went to elementary school there. It was there that a neighbor was a game warden.

"He drove a Ford Bronco - a '75 model - and I thought that was the coolest vehicle. And he talked about how much he enjoyed his job," Sartor said.

But it was while living in Georgia that Sartor decided he wanted to become a ranger. He remembered talking with a game warden at his father's hunting camp in Hancock County, who told him what to do in pursuing such a job. Sartor received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville. He applied with the state Department of Natural Resources, but there was a hiring freeze. It wasn't until three years later- on Jan. 1, 2000 - that he was hired and placed on patrol in Bibb County.

Today, he and his wife, Julie, who is from Madison County, make their home here.

"We do the same law enforcement that the state patrol and deputies do, but our focus is on wildlife laws, fishing and boating," he said. "If I pulled over someone for DUI, I'd try to get a deputy or trooper to come out."

Sartor has noticed a decrease in hunting, as well as places to hunt.

"Hunting clubs themselves are becoming a rarity in this area. People are buying them out and turning them into places where they and their family and friends can hunt," he said. And while hunting in some counties appears to be an endangered sport, Sartor is working to maintain this old tradition in Madison County. That's one of the reasons he started a dove hunt for students ages 15 and under. This year the hunt was staged on property owned by Troy Chandler.

"This is the third year and it's growing by leaps and bounds," he said. "I take a lot of pride and I'm extremely happy about what is taking place (with the hunt). We had over 100 people this year," he said.

The job has put Sartor in touch with a lot of people. On this patrol, he stopped at a crossroads near Adams Grocery on Georgia Highway 281. The driver of another truck also stopped. The man exited his vehicle and walked over to Sartor.

Sartor recognized the man and asked, "How many you got?"

"I ain't squeezed the trigger on nothing," the man said. "Nothing I wanted to drag out of the woods."

Sartor meets a lot of people and most are carrying guns.

"All game wardens realize that most of the people (they encounter) will be armed in some form or fashion, but I consider that an advantage," he said, explaining that police and deputies often never know if the person they encounter is armed with a weapon.

Just like this night on patrol, many nights on the back roads of Madison County are quiet. He often is alone in the middle of the night looking for someone illegally killing wildlife. But this is where he wants to be.

"Most everybody that becomes a game warden knows what they're getting into," he said. "It's a interesting job and I wouldn't trade it for anything."